“Strength training does not make us less mobile,” confirms Strong Women Training Club ambassador, Emma Obayuvana. “If exercises are performed well with correct movement pattern and form, and with a full range of motion, mobility will not be impacted.”

Emma, who leads a series of 15-minute mobility workouts on the Training Club, explains that mobility is hugely important for anyone who lifts weights because it decreases the risk of injury by improving our movement patterns.

Injury prevention isn’t the only reason to concentrate on mobility, however. A limited range of motion translates into limited muscle growth, says a study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. Researchers compared doing 12 weeks of shallow squats to three months of deep squats. They found (unsurprisingly) that the deeper the squat, the more thigh muscle, improved knee extension and flexion, and squat-jump power was generated.

These benefits are specific to mobility – they don’t apply to generic stretching. In fact, a 2017 paper published in the Sports Medicine journal found that mobility workouts were better than static stretches for increasing range. Mobility isn’t the same as a standard stretch. Emma explains that “simple stretch positions are held without movement – they involve passive stretching. In mobility, we are moving the joint through the range of motion that the joint is intended to move in,” making it more dynamic.

Mobility: does strength training make us less flexible?